[kcc-news] URGENT - BELGRADE CRACKDOWN ON KOSOVA MEDIA (fwd)

[Mentor Cana]

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URGENT — ALERT

CRACKDOWN ON ALBANIAN-LANGUAGE MEDIA
        
The minister of information of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic,
sent on Thursday, December 17, 1998, a warning to the Albanian language
newspapers and magazines that they would be taken to court  if they don’t
change their editorial policy. The minister wrote,  that the newspapers,
according to their analysis of texts that were published in these newspapers
and magazines, were “calling for the violent break of the constitutional order,
territorial integrity and unity of the Republic of Serbia and FR of Yugoslavia”
as well as violating the rights of citizens, that is  inciting national, racial
or religious hatred.
        
A fax has been sent to the following newspapers and magazines: KOHA
Ditore, KOHA, Zeri i Dites, Fjala e jone (published in the village of
Prugovac), Fjala e jone (published in Prishtina). Furthermore , a fax has been
sent to the newspaper BUJKU, warning the newspaper that it hadn’t been
registered in the Ministry’s register of newspapers, and that it if didn’t
register measures against it would be taken.
        
The newspapers have not been informed which of the articles have caused
a reaction by the minister. To make the matters worse, the minister himself is
claiming  that he has seen offensive articles that have never appeared. Namely,
the daily newspaper Zeri i Dites has not appeared yet, it is planned to be
published sometime in March of next year. Or, in the case of Fjala jone, the
minister claims that offensive articles have appeared in a newspaper that has
not been printed or distributed for months.
        
It is clear therefore that, lacking more serious insight on the media
scene in Kosova, the Serb minister of information, who had sent these kinds of
letters to three newspapers in Blegrade (Nasa Borba, Danas and Dnevni Telegraf)
is actually planning to close two of Kosova’s daily newspapers in Albanian:
KOHA Ditore, the most influential Albanian language outlet, and Bujku (which is
actually registered under the Socialist Yugoslavia register). The only Albanian
language newspaper not affected would be Kosova Sot, a new Albanian language
daily.

Veton Surroi,

Editor in chief, KOHA Ditore
<veton at koha.net>
Prishtina, 17 December, 1998


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